


Understanding

by ich_bin_ein_stern



Series: Prompts w/Tony Stark [1]
Category: Captain America: Civil War (Movie) - Fandom, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Other, Pre-CACW
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-30
Updated: 2016-07-30
Packaged: 2018-07-28 07:03:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7630057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ich_bin_ein_stern/pseuds/ich_bin_ein_stern
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: So, what if Bucky is brought in months before the Accords, without the government knowing, and Tony get's him evaluated and he's starting to get the help he needs. During one of his sessions, Steve pulls Tony to the side and tells him what really happened to his parents. Tony is shocked, angry at Steve, and closes himself, but he doesn't take Bucky out of treatment. BUCKY is the one to go find Tony one evening and they, idk, talk about it and it ends with a cuddle session or somethign ty</p>
            </blockquote>





	Understanding

Tony remembers the day Steve brings Bucky to the tower. He remembers clearly how distressed Steve is and how uncomfortable Bucky was with being in such an open space. 

“Tony,” Steve breathes. “Can you…can you help, please? He needs a place to stay and it can’t be the Training Facility. Too many people.”

Tony and Steve haven’t talked in a while. Their communication has been limited to emails and the occasional phone call, but nothing more. 

“And is Barnes okay with being here?” Tony asks. “He doesn’t exactly look comfortable.”

Bucky looks at Tony when he hears his last name and, just like that, Tony is taken back to the first few weeks after Rhodey brings him home from Afganistan. The look in Bucky’s eyes is one he recognizes. He sees it when he looks in a mirror sometimes. The uncertainty. The nervousness. 

Steve turns to Bucky and they communicate in such quiet voices that Tony can’t make out what they are saying, but he waits. 

“He’s okay,” Steve confirms. “With being here, I mean. He just needs to lay low and…relax.” 

“He needs help,” Tony states not unkindly.

The statement comes off a little rude and Tony kicks himself for not wording it better, but what’s said can’t be taken back. He recognizes the flash of anger on Steve’s face, probably for the word choice, and Bucky looking…hopeful?

Bucky steps past Steve and Tony can finally see him fully. He’s built similar to Steve, ball cap on his head, face not shaven in a few weeks, and wearing dark clothing.

“I want help,” Bucky says quietly. “But I don’t think I’m worth the trouble.”

“You’re worth it, Bucky,” Steve says instantly. 

And then he looks at Tony, gives that imploring look, and Tony nods.

“Lucky for you, I’ve been working on something that may help. But first,” Tony waves his hand and a hologram pops up, “you need to be evaluated. I know a guy who can do it, no questions ask. Probably gonna’ have to see a therapist. ”

He taps at the hologram, humming to himself, before nodding. Looking back at Steve and Bucky, he gets a double-whammy of hopeful looks and it makes something in his chest tight.

“I have to contact him, find out when he’s free, and set up a time,” Tony says, walking towards them and stopping in front of Bucky. “You can stay here. There’s,” he spares a look at Steve, “plenty of room. And space. Just pick a place above floor 55. Okay? Go settle in.”

He turns around and walks back to whatever he was messing with. When he doesn’t hear anything, he looks up. Bucky is out of sight, probably instructed to go back to the elevator, and Steve is standing there.

Steve walks over to him and, before Tony can ask what’s wrong, Steve hugs him.

“Thank you, Tony. Thank you so much.”

“Yup, now go settle him in. I need to make a call and then get back to work.”

Steve pulls back and gives him a small smile.

He walks out of Tony’s workshop quietly. 

———-

Doctor Cane has been a close friend to Tony for years and, upon hearing that he was needed, dropped what he was doing and allowed Tony to fly him out. Tony has a lot of respect for the man considering he was one of the reasons Tony started focusing on the technology he will later demonstrate at MIT.

Tony has him fly in in the early morning, picks him up personally, and calls for Steve to be at the tower for Bucky.

After that, it’s a tense silence as Bucky and Doctor Cane sit on one side of the room discussing things, going through papers, and questions exchanged. When that is done, the evaluation begins.

Tony gives them his upper-level workshop for a few reasons: what is said is private (he has no plans to go through FRIDAY’s recording of it), Bucky can still see Steve is he looks up, and the glass is breakable just in case things take a turn for the worse. 

Steve and Tony stay on the floor just above the workshop and watch as Bucky struggles to speak at times, close off,and go blank face. However, Doctor Cane is patient. He waits for Bucky to speak.

The evaluation lasts a good few hours, but Steve doesn’t leave and Tony only leaves once to answer a private call.

“Thank you for doing this, Tony, It means more than you can possibly imagine.”

Tony looks at Steve, sees the happy look, and looks away.

“Barnes is a victim, Steve. Being forced to…to do terrible things and for such a long time. I just, I can’t fix him, but I will help him.”

Steve turns to Tony, eyes gentle. “You’re a good man, Tony.”

“No, I’m not,” Tony replies. “I’m just a man trying to do good.”

Steve doesn’t say anything and Tony doesn’t make another comment. They stay there the entire time until it’s over.

———-

“He will need to see a therapist three times a week, at least. Only an hour, but can leave early or stay later. This is a list of people who can contact that will do private sessions. I recommend he take up a hobby in-between sessions. It can be physical; like running, boxing, or basketball. He can draw. Pick up a TV show. He can write. Some therapist may require a journal. As far as medication goes, I will have to see what’s strongest given that he, too, has super soldier serum in him.”

Doctor Cane scratches his head.

“He’s very similar to you, Tony. Well, at least in the way that he responds.”

They both look over to Steve and Bucky who are talking quietly. Bucky looks two seconds away from bolting out of the room and Tony can’t blame him. 

“Thanks for helping out, Doc. I appreciate it.”

“It’s not a problem. Give my regards to Colonel Rhodes.”

Tony nodded. “Will do.”

He watches Doctor Cane walk to Steve and Bucky, shakes Steve’s hand, pat Bucky on the shoulder, and then he’s gone. Just turns away with the intent to give Steve and Bucky more privacy, but something cold catches his wrist. His eyes immediately snap to the metal hand holding onto him.

“You don’t have to say ‘thank you’ or anything,” Tony says while still looking away, but Bucky rounds on him and looks at Tony.

“I wanna’ say it. So, thank you. I - just, thank you,” and then he lets go of Tony. 

“No worries,” Tony says louder and then he turns around. “These are a list of private therapists. Have FRIDAY go through their files. Make your choose. The tower is free game to have your sessions here if you want. I can send for whoever you choose. Cost is not a problem.”

He pulls out of Bucky’s grip as nicely as possible.

Walking away, he waves a hand over his shoulder, “Let me know what you decide.”

———-

There days later, Tony gets a call from Steve.

“We found one.”

“Cool. Who?”

“I sent you an email, Tony.”

“Or you could just tell me?”

“Check your email, Tony.”

And Steve hangs up with a chuckle.

———-

The email doesn’t just have the choice of therapist, but it also has pictures of the new Avengers chilling during movie night.

Tony makes them the background of his tablet.

———-

Therapy runs smoothly for Bucky as far as Tony knows. He gets the occasional update from FRIDAY or Steve after sessions, but for the most part, he keeps to himself.

And Tony doesn’t mind, of course, because he did offer his tower to Bucky. But he doesn’t see much of the other man around, only running into in the early hours in the morning or late into the evening.

Steve visits during the time Bucky has a session, stays a little bit after for Bucky, stops in to say a brief ‘hi’ to Tony, and that’s about it. 

And everything is fine until Steve pulls him to the side.

———-

Right after Steve walks Bucky to the room for his therapy session, he asks FRIDAY to have Tony meet him outside the room to talk. He waits 15 minutes before Tony finally enters the room, cup of coffee in hand and his tablet in the other.

And Tony immediately notices how tense Steve is.

“Whoa, buddy. You need to relax.”

He takes a sip as he settles next to Steve. “Barnes is fine. I hear sessions are going well. He’s working through it and all.”

“I know, Tony, and I appreciate what you’re doing. But I didn’t just bring you down here for any old reason.”

Tony stops messing with his tablet and looks up at Steve, patient, and Steve feels an intense amount of guilt eat at him. He tries to figure out where to begin, but starts off slow.

“Do you remember when we were at Clint’s farm during…the whole Ultron problem?”

“How can I forget Clint’s agent wife and mini-agents? What about them?”

“Do…you remember what I said about…secrets?”

Tony inhales and looks away.

“I’m not keeping any new secrets, Cap. I’ve just been working on things for SI and focusing on,” he pauses for a moment, takes a sip of coffee, and continues, “on myself.”

“I know, Tony. I’m glad that you are taking care of yourself, but this is different.”

Steve falls silent.

“Jesus, Steve. Get to it.”

Steve braces himself and then - “Your parents didn’t die in a car crash.”

And Tony chokes on his coffee. His tablet falls to the ground as he scrambles to put the cup down and breathe. He turns towards Steve, eyes wide, and mouth open.

“What do you mean they didn’t die in a car crash? I saw the photos, Steve. There was an autopsy.”

“It was a setup,” and Steve just lets it out. “Hydra wanted your father dead, Tony. I don’t know why, exactly. The autopsy was falsified.”

Tony just stares at him, stares through him, and says nothing.

It’s a tense five minutes of silence before Tony asks, “How long have you known this?”

“Since SHIELD fell. I saw a report about it.”

And that makes Tony laugh. A cold, bitter laugh. And then he stops suddenly and glares at Steve, feeling the anger boil up in him.

“ _Sometimes my teammates don’t tell me things,_ ” Tony mocks. “But we aren’t teammates anymore, right, Steve? Oh, who am I kidding? I have only ever been a consultant to the Avengers.”

“Tony, I’m - ”

“Don’t say sorry, Steve,” Tony breathes, bringing his hands to cover his face. “Do you know who did it? The person Hydra sent?”

Tony looks up at Steve, sees that he’s looking at the door where Bucky and the therapist are, and backs away.

“H-holy shit,” Tony says.

“He didn’t do it willingly, Tony!” Steve says immediately.

He reaches out for Tony only to be shoved away.

“Don’t,” Tony snaps. “Don’t touch me. Barnes can still stay here, but I don’t want to see your face. You’re a hypocrite, Steve Rogers.”

He picks up his tablet and all but runs with it out of the room, not caring that he left his coffee behind.

Tony locks himself in his workshop, orders FRIDAY to do the blackout protocol, and works.

———-

Bucky comes to his workshop about a week later. It’s the weekend and Tony’s not doing much aside from reading through some old paper documents from Howard’s old things (why does he still have them?) when FRIDAY announces Bucky's request to enter.

And Tony tenses. He’s…not sure for a moment. 

“Is Steve here?”

“Captain Rogers left two hours ago.”

Tony sighs. “Sure. Whatever. Let him in.”

Bucky walks in what seems to be Steve’s clothing (plaid shirt and sweats) and waits by the door. He doesn’t come closer.

They stare at each other as minutes tick away before Tony sighs.

“I know,” Tony starts. “Steve told me. If you’re here to say sorry, don’t.”

And he almost regrets saying that when Bucky's unsure face crumbles to one of guilt and pain.

“I know it’s not your fault,” Tony continues. “You had no choice.”

Bucky opens his mouth to say something, but Tony beats him to it.

“It’s…unfortunate that war hero, Bucky Barnes, and the Winter Soldier have the same face.”

 And Tony smiles sadly. Not at Bucky, but to himself. Because it’s not fair. To him, to his parents, to Bucky. They’re all victims.

“If you’re worried that I’m going to stop you from receiving treatment, I won’t.”

“It’s not that,” Bucky says finally. “It’s not fair to you. It’s - I didn’t know Stevie waited to tell you. I thought you knew. I,” he licks his lips. “I don’t want you to think I’m just using you.”

Tony wants to make a retort that he’s been used by so many people that it doesn’t affect him anymore but seeing the guilty expression on Bucky’s face keeps him from doing it.

“Look, it’s fine. Well, no. It’s not fine. And I’m kinda having trouble dealing with this, but I’ll get over it eventually. I’m gonna’ keep moving forward.”

Bucky's frown twitched and then he offers Tony a tiny smile.

“Steve is, uh, gone. Can I stay here with you? I-I’ll be out of your way - ”

“Sure,” Tony says. He wants to get to know more about Bucky and less about the Winter Soldier anyways. They need to get past this somehow. “You can help me sort through this shit and then we’ll burn what’s not important.”

He motions for Bucky to sit across from him and pushes a stack of papers near him once he finally does.

“Anything about tech goes in this pile, government secrets here, and other shit here,” he points to each pile and gets back to work.

They’re at this for 10 minutes before Tony hears a faint, “Thank you.”

Tony offers Bucky a little smile, gets one in return, and they spend a few hours sorting through the rest of Howard’s shit.

It’s not much, but it’s a start.

**Author's Note:**

> Leave me a pairing and a prompt at my Tumblr: i-ship-tonystark-with-happiness  
> -This is a cross post from my Tumblr.-


End file.
